IFTI NASIM

My Father

My father,
everyone says
my appearence
resemble yours.

My eyes
my forehead
my lips
my accent
the way I talk
sit around
the way I walk;
movement of my hands,
everything is like yours only.

I have heard that the son
is the heir of his father’s lineage.

A questions comes to my mind.
If I am exactly like you
then why my sexual preference
is so much different from yours?

Iftikhar Naseem

Ifti Nasim (1946 – July 22, 2011) was a gay Pakistani American poet. Having moved to the US to escape persecution for his sexual orientation, he became known locally for establishing Sangat, an organization to support LGBT south-Asian youths, and internationally for publishing Narman, a poetry collection that was the first open expression of homosexual themes in the Urdu language.
Nasim was born in Lyallpur, British India (now Faisalabad, Pakistan) shortly before independence, a middle child in a large family. As a teenager he felt ostracized and alone, and was unable to live as openly gay; at the age of 21 he emigrated from Pakistan to the US, inspired in part by an article in Life magazine that he recalls describing the US as "the place for gays to be in". Several of his siblings later followed him to the US, and he eventually naturalized as a US citizen.
Ifti Nasim died in hospital in Chicago on July 22, 2011 following a heart attack, at the age of 64. He was the gay son of a WRITER/Editor of Faisal Abad first newspaper
The publication for which Ifti Nasim was best known was a book of poetry entitled Narman, a word meaning "hermaphrodite" or "half-man, half-woman" in Persian. It met immediate controversy in Pakistan and had to be distributed underground; even the printer of the book, belatedly realizing its contents, was reported to shout, "Take these unholy and dirty books away from me, or I'll set them on fire!” However, its frankness inspired a younger generation of Pakistani poets to write "honest" poetry, a genre becoming known as "narmani" poetry.
He later released Myrmecophile in 2000, and Abdoz in 2005 (en.wikipedia.org)

A Boy Taught me How to Kiss a Girl

Playing Cricket was praying
Five times at once.
Every evening after
We all gather in the school ground
Like a different sets of animals
Around the watering hole
In Serengeti.
Some playing Hockey
Some Football
Some doing nothing, reading, watching
Some predators.
We both were sweating rather drenching.
We jump in the swimming pool.
My fear of water and drowning came over me.
He knew.
He held my arm and waist and made me swim.
Coming back home at dusk
He looked around.
Under a mango tree
He held my face in his palms
And put his lips on mine.
Fragrance of freshly dropped rain on hot earth
Surged in my palate
I was tasting cloud.
“ That’s how you kiss a girl.”
He whispered in my ear.